A Thousand Thorns
by rwbybomb21
Summary: For Jin0uga. She left because she was cheated on and ignored, then spent a year being in the limelight of a police searchlight, with a partner in crime she became too familiar with. Now back in Beacon, what changes could she bring about? Mute!Ruby, Cold!Ruby, OOC. Two Shot.
1. I'm A Sinful Angel

**For Jin0uga, I hope you enjoy.**

 **Now, to my fans; in case you didn't get the memo, I'm back motherfuckers! Yes, me, the king of dark stories, is back!**

 **Important: My previously massive-with-the-readers story, A Wanted Rose, is being re-written as we...well...as you read.**

 **Leave any comments, reviews, issues, doctor's orders, medical notes, reasons why I rule, requests or pregnancy results in the reviews section of my story. Oh, and yes, I'm bringing this back; STAY GOLDEN!**

 **This is a two shot.**

(^^^^^^)

Ruby Rose walked her way through the large arched hallways of Beacon Academy, wondering for the life of her where she put it; her scarf, she was talking about. A birthday present for her sixteenth, Ruby cherished it, always wearing it to cover her neck and mouth- she stopped breathing out of her mouth ages ago, opting for the easier approach of breathing through her nose. It was a massive pain breathing through her mouth- ' _no point'_ , she thought- and it was hell when the winter season came and she caught a cold, flu or something that another student may have passed on to her; Hence her avoidance of the general student body.

But there was another use for the crimson, worn scarf; to cover her mouth from those that would try to get a response from her, unknowing of her plight. Being a mute seen as the most dangerous individual in Beacon did have its perks- mainly no one wanted to speak to her- but now being a second year and feeling neglected by her peers because she had long since surpassed them, the cons outweighed the pros.

Everywhere she looked there were looks of slight fear, annoyance, curiosity- the first years, no doubt- and abject awe. They were in awe that a fifteen year old- just recently turned sixteen- could become the top student in all of Beacon, even surpassing the strongest year four hunters and huntresses.

And yet every time she walked these halls, every time she attended classes gaining top scores- all she had time to do was study, unlike her teammates- she felt sick.

Why? She felt sick because she had no one to help her when someone wanted to speak to her and she couldn't answer. She felt sick because her own sister valued her nightclubs and bars over Ruby herself. She felt sick because her girlfriend of six months was cheating on her with her own teammate.

It was all so disgustingly sweet, a bittersweet pill she had to swallow every single day just to get through them, every single night when she kissed her girlfriend, knowing she was likely kissing someone else; no, not likely, definitely. She'd caught them in the act once, Weiss with her tongue practically down Blake's throat, and it hurt her seeing that.

It hurt even more when Weiss simply acted as if she wasn't crushing Ruby's very soul before her eyes; though why should she even know she was doing that in the first place? Ruby couldn't talk, could hardly interact with her, so it was only reasonable to want someone else that could actually exchange words in a conversation or during love making- no, it wasn't love making with those two anymore, it was just sex, just almost-casual sex. Weiss didn't know about Ruby's knowledge of her cheating, and she likely never would.

' _well...until now, at least'_. Ruby had a dark thought then, of pulling Weiss' little world apart as she elaborately faked her death, or found some completely convoluted way of vanishing from Beacon one day without a trace, starting up a new life somewhere, maybe finding love again. But as mad as she was at her entire team- Yang especially for knowing and not doing anything about it- she wasn't evil, but the last idea, vanishing without a trace and starting up life somewhere else again, it sounded appealing to her.

The thought continued to scream at her from all angles until she gave in, using her semblance to blur around the room and pack everything belonging to her in a nondescript black suitcase.

Standing at the door of her room, staring at the picked clean areas where her clothing and base essentials had been, Ruby decided it was time to finish looking for her- oh, there it was, beneath Weiss' bed where she had left it after their almost-casual sex sessions.

Wrapping the scarf around her neck and chin, just below her lips, Ruby gave the room a slow once-over before shaking her head, a small tear slipping down her cheek. Then she vanished, a puff of red petals swirling slowly to the ground.

When Yang and the others came in, they'd notice the small pile of rose petals lazing around on the ground.

With one of them stained with a tear.

(^^^^^^)

She'd decided being a huntress-in-training wasn't the life she wanted. She wanted excitement, she craved it, she needed adventure; criminality seemed to give her the rush she needed, filling her empty heart with something to look forward to, whether it was running from the VPD's rather inadequate police force, planning the next bank heist and pulling it off flawlessly without a single witness, or robbing a few Dust shops to stock up occasionally.

Ruby Rose was now known as _'Jacky the Ripper'_.

It confused her greatly why they'd come up with such a name for her; all she did was steal without someone even suspecting her and, in her spare time, paint. She never killed- too much trouble getting blood out of Crescent Rose's gears-, never maimed and most certainly never whored herself around, only to butcher prostitutes on the streets.

But as many things with Ruby were, it was a mystery.

So were the knocks she got on her rather expensive apartment room door; silk curtains, Ursa skin rugs, a luxurious couch for two and a fifty inch plasma screen hanging from the wall made up what was visible if you looked through the keyhole. The rest of the apartment's interior was located behind a red painted door with a bronze door handle on the far west side of the room, almost out of sight if one _were_ to look through the main door's keyhole.

Picking up a red and black silenced Colt 1911 semi-automatic hair-trigger pistol, she placed it warily behind her back as she pulled back the slide, loading the antique gun and walking quickly but warily to the door. Looking through the peephole she spied a mop of orange hair uncovered, but since it was too short to be anything like Nora's she was safe in the assumption that none of her previous friends had figured out where she was- who she was. Penny was rumoured to have been relocated to Atlas, for an unknown reason even to her; she'd attempted figuring out what happened to the...eccentric android, but alas even her hacking skills couldn't get her past the latest Atlesian Military's security.

Ruby shifted her eyes to make sure the chain on the door was locked- it was- before she went and turned her door handle slowly, looking through the gap between the door and the doorframe to see who was disturbing her next heist planning- after all, Vale's police force had too many weapons by her account, and hardly any of them were used, so why not take them, relive them of their burdens?

Roman Torchwick was on the other side, looking at her with a small smile akin to something along the lines of surprise, but also he looked pleased. An odd mixture, surprise and glee, but nonetheless she was wary of the man standing outside her apartment room- how did he even find her? She was in the rich part of Vale, a couple of miles away from Beacon and anything to do with hunters and huntresses, anything to do with his heists or that Cinder woman's plans.

"Red, what a surprise!" his expression held no such look of being surprised to actually seeing her here at random, no, it was the surprised expression of finally having found someone.

She looked at him with a scathing glare of loathing and disgust, while Roman just twirled around his cane absently. "Now I know you're a mute an' all, but can't you at least raise a hand in greeting or something?" she did no such thing, only stared. "Can I come in?"

She was just about to slam the door in his face when he caught the closing partially-opened door with his foot, wincing slightly but nonetheless speaking as if to an old friend. "Aw, come on! I'll make it worth your while?"

He stepped back, allowing her to slam the door with enough force to create a little draft, blowing his hair this way and that while he waited a couple of seconds outside, looking at the door in shock. He didn't expect her to blow him off so quickly, though he should have, considering he did try to kill her while she was still a huntress for Beacon- now she was a world famous thief, spectacular assassin and mercenary-for-hire to boot.

Looking around, he noted every wall in the hall leading up to her door had some sort of vandalising yet artistic spray-painted graffiti on them, making him question just how, exactly- and why- she lived here; it looked a little rough around here, he reckoned, but as he'd learned before, appearances could be deceiving. These apartments were outrageously expensive, even to the point that he'd never even go near the price tag of the place without a little haggling and a lot of threats to the owner first, let alone purchase an apartment room. It set off a nagging feeling that maybe little Red was a little _too_ good a thief; was there even such a thing?

To his surprise he heard the sound of a chain coming undone a second later, followed by the creak of a worn but new wooden door opening and, lo and behold, there stood Ruby, garbed a little differently than the last time he saw her.

A black pair of almost skin-tight work pants, a red vest-shirt and a grey collared work shirt underneath, she made his haphazard style look almost pathetic. She pointed her silenced pistol at him for a moment, noting how he froze in surprise, before stepping back and waving the pistol in the direction of the inside of her room, before closing the door behind him as he walked in.

This was no social call- she never had those anymore- and she understood that perfectly well, it seemed. Roman was impressed with the amount of professionalism she possessed.

Sitting down in a recliner opposite the two-seater sofa, Ruby noted how he sat down with his head craning from left to right; he half expected a dingy little apartment with a rotting bookshelf and torn up floorboards with some elaborate trap system. He didn't expect a beautiful mansion-esque apartment room that looked like it belonged in a queen's castle or something, with pristine white walls and a red door that caught his attention more than a few times.

Ruby stared at him for a moment in silence before waving her hand in a motion for him to start speaking, the pistol placed in her lap lest he try something. Though for a reason unknown, aside from his cane, she figured him completely disarmed.

Eyeing the pistol for a moment, he looked at her with a sly smile on his face. "Expecting some company soon, Red?" she looked at him, then the door, then him again and then her watch. "I won't keep you; in fact, I have a proposition. I've heard all about you, _'Jacky'_."

She seemed to be generally interested once he said the nickname she was known as; she may not kill, but assassins weren't paid to kill- they were paid to silently eliminate, to make disappear, to engage, to slaughter. Killing wasn't her goal, because that would imply murder without a purpose; everything she did had a purpose these days, something to fit into her grand scheme. That stupid little nickname she'd been given implied she was some sort of aimless, silent-but-deadly murderer with no purpose other than to kill; oh, she could disagree wholly on that. She had _many_ purposes.

Roman took his bowler cap off, pulling a small note out before placing his hat back on. "This is a personal invitation from Cinder Fall, my boss, herself." He noted the spark of recognition in Ruby's face, and frowned. "But it seems you already know her."

She just stared, wondering what he was getting at; as if she'd ever join Roman and his band of cronies, a murderous psychopathic woman to boot commanding them all. She was a thief and an assassin, not some sort of goon like the rest of his men following him blindly. She might consider it if she knew for a hundred percentile certainty that she'd live afterwards, after the crazy Fall's objective was completed.

But, another voice pleaded, she was low on money; no one had any need of her anymore, no one save Beacon that is; and she swore that she'd kill herself slowly with a rusty dagger before even considering going there again. Plus, it wouldn't really be fair on the other students; she'd outshine even the teachers themselves with her skills.

That little pleading voice became her voice of reason, her only voice actually- it might just be the best thing to ever show up in her twisted head.

She nodded, took the invite, read the details of where and when to meet the boss lady herself.

And then she met her new partner, Neopolitan.

(^^^^^^)

A year later and those two were practically joined at the hip, performing far better than even Cinder could have anticipated. They'd always be working from behind cloaks and shadows, a preferred style that both girls found a common ground on, which eventually escalated to, somehow, a daily 'date' as Neo had jokingly called it.

Her partner, Ruby, found no such joke funny, but she did have to admit that with them being such close partners- Ruby would never admit to them being friends- everyday 'dates' were something they could do with. An escape from their daily lives of thievery, murder and what Emerald had taken to calling 'closet mayhem' was something they both sorely needed.

Sitting in one of Downtown Vale's many cafes- unknown to either of them it was the very same cafe Blake escaped to nearly two years ago- Ruby would oftentimes browse the menu, searching hopefully against hope for a new item added to the paper list of foods and drinks.

Neo, while her companion was doing that, would sit with her umbrella popped open and balanced atop a small weighted cup of sort, smack in the middle of the table to shield them both from the often glaring sun of Vale.

Looking over the menu for a second to find her partner almost asleep, eyes drooping every now and them, Ruby felt herself tire as well; last night had been quite the mission, the two of them sneaking past Vale's most well-trained security force- the Schnees', of course- and stealing top secret blueprints from inside the Schnee mansion itself, all the while remaining undetected whilst making their ways out as well.

And all the while at midnight; hence their tiredness. They'd barely had an hour's sleep before Roman called them in for a second mission, which they'd just finished short of an hour ago.

She took a small, thin extendable baton that kept up her sleeve, extended it to its full three inch length, and leaned over the table, prodding her in the shoulder gently.

Neo shot upwards, a small look of sheepishness that soon went away and shot Ruby a small look. "Sorry Ruby, fallin' asleep again. Stupid night missions."

Ruby just shook her head and turned to the approaching waitress; a fox Faunus, late teens, around about eighteen to nineteen she'd wager. Black hair, dark green eyes, pale skin, and two red tipped orange fox ears atop her head. She approached with a smile as wide as the ocean, and Ruby simply shot her a look of gratitude, before turning to Neo and tilting her head in the direction of the incoming familiar person.

Neo waved a little to the woman coming their way, which made the waitress wave back, only slightly smaller and with less zeal.

"Hey guys, the usual?" Ruby nodded, placing the small paper menu in the centre of the table while Neo shook her head, causing Ruby and the waitress both to lift their eyebrows.

"I'm not really hungry today, just a tea this time."

The waitress just nodded, smiled and walked off, her hips swinging from side to side, Ruby's eyes following for a second before she turned to look at a smirking Neo. "You know she does that on purpose right?"

Ruby nodded, leaning back in her seat and putting away the baton back in her sleeve.

"And...you know she's teasing you, right?"

Again, a nod, causing Neo to look confused.

"So, why don't you chase that tail to a bed or something?" Ruby frowned, causing Neo to correct her statement. "I mean, I know she has a tail an' all...you know what I meant!" thankfully the outburst had gone unnoticed by the dwellers of the cafe, of which there were surprisingly few. The Faunus waitress simply giggled at what she heard.

Ruby simply pointed to the waitress, who helpfully lifted a hand, waving the fingers about- Ruby's hand was pointed at the wedding ring around the waitress's ring finger, which caused Neo to look like an idiot at the fact that she'd never noticed.

"Okay...point taken."

And the next few minutes were spent with a one sided discussion of how Ruby needed to tone down her lethality during missions, of which Ruby non-verbally deflected to the fact that Neo was almost as lethal, which then dissolved into a hysteric Neo claiming she had no idea what Ruby was implying.

All in all a productive day.

(^^^^^^)

Today was not a productive day, not at all in the slightest.

Their boss had been arrested, had ratted them out for some years off of his jail sentence, and had provided the police and Vale's very own Beacon Academy the means to capture them.

Now here Neo and Ruby sat, side by side in a police cell that becoming a little too familiar to the red and pink-brown duo, with their eyes glued to the metal grey door across from them. all that was in the way from escape was the fact that A) Beacon academy hunters and huntresses were outside the door, B) they couldn't fight anyone off without leaving with a few bruises or scratches and C) Ruby had a feeling they'd want to stay here anyway, if not for the safety then for the fact that an officer let slip that someone supposedly important wished to speak with them.

I mean sure, Ruby had done some side jobs for various political figures- many of which owed her more than one favour- and some noticeable people in Vale, but surely this person wasn't here to hire her for a job if they went through all the trouble of arresting her and her partner.

Then there came the fact that Neo and she both weren't chained to the table or had any armed guards inside with them. it was quite curious, considering the only thing they did was take their weaponry- it took Ruby and Neo a combined time of ten minutes to drop all of their weapons- and herd them into this cell.

But the thing that stung her most was the fact that this wasn't an arrest at all, nor an interrogation, and she had a pretty good idea of who exactly it was that wished to speak with her.

She was proven right when Glynda Goodwitch and Professor Ozpin themselves strolled in, each wearing uncharacteristic looks of shock.

Ozpin sat down, shock still evident, while Glynda simply turned around to look away, trying to compose herself into her normal straight face.

"Ruby...? Well, this certainly is a surprise, a surprise indeed." He then smiled, sipping his coffee from the same mug he had two years ago. His attention turned form the smartly dressed Ruby to the not-as-smartly dressed Neo, who stared with a mixed look of neutrality and slight wonder; she was looking between Ruby, stone faced and glaring, to Ozpin, calm and smiling, tyring to figure out their connection to each other. "I'm sorry, we haven't been acquainted."

His professionalism and sheer image of serenity took Neo for a loop; he was too calm, too polite to be one of the best hunters on the world, and yet he was the headmaster of a hunting academy? How strange this man was becoming to her.

"I'm..." she looked across to Ruby, as if asking if this guy was okay to be trusted with her real name; apparently he was, since she just nodded once, a glare set still on her once cute, now scarred face. "...Neo."

"Well, hello Neo." He sipped his coffee, noting Glynda leave the room for what he assumed was telling the hunter squads outside the room to stand down and go home. "Now, I'm assuming that you're wondering why you're here instead of a prison cell?"

Ruby shook her head, indicating she had some idea, and Neo simply spoke to him as if translating what that simple head-shake meant. "No, we have a good idea why you're here."

"Oh?"

"You want us at Beacon."

Ozpin's eyes widened as his eyebrows shot upwards, almost reaching his spiked hairline. Questions fumbled through his addled mind, but only one made itself known. "How did you know that was why you're here?"

Ruby just shot him a look, as if to say _'it's kind of obvious'._

Neo stayed quiet.

"Well..." he coughed into his hand, turning his head to Ruby. "Right to it then; would you like to come and join us at Beacon, or remain in a cell?" He turned his head to Ruby, who continued glaring his way as if annoyed and frustrated at their only options. "You have quite the reputation, Jacky, I'm sure. Your kill count is quite low, but since you came into criminality, even Roman Torchwick and his compatriots couldn't hold a candle to your...profession."

She frowned.

"I believe you'd rather go to Beacon than have to kill everyone in a prison, wouldn't you?" Neo was about to speak for the annoyed Ruby, but Ozpin cut her off, still looking at Ruby. "I understand you and your partner wish to remain so, and I understand, to my knowledge, that you have quite the skills." He sipped his coffee, eyeing the two while thought buzzed through his head, one coming to light. "Many teachers in my academy have been talking about you two, but you in particular Ruby; a girl who was the youngest to arrive at Beacon, a girl at the top of her classes while two years behind the other, older students: A girl who was a mute with the ability to take on a Deathstalker and a Nevermore in her own initiation and win unscathed."

He stopped for breath, looking at them as if to prove a point. "And now, you're the girl who is known worldwide as one of the best thieves in the world, one of the best assassins-for-hire, and one of the best, if not _the_ best, unofficial Grimm hunter Vale has ever seen."

After a moment, Neo spoke up, looking at Ruby who just made eye contact. "What do we get aside from a free pass out of prison?"

He looked confused, and every second of his confusion was every second of joy for Ruby and Neo; Neo may not like the man, but she could tell his speech pattern followed circles, always speaking in and around them, and if possible, always turning people against themselves to benefit himself.

"May I ask what you mean?"

Neo replied immediately, leaning forward and clasping her hands over the table, noting Ruby idly leaning backwards in her chair as if to fall asleep in it. "We work for money, always have, always will; we also work as partners."

"What are you asking, miss Neo?"

Neo leaned backwards, a smug grin on her face. "Twenty million Lien, _each_ , for the remainder of the two years we would be there." She looked to Ruby, as if asking if this deal was okay; Ruby just nodded, making a small circle with her left hand's pointer finger and thumb, the universal sign that what she had said was spot on.

Ozpin had been played; he came here to bring a troubled student back and recruit someone said student could trust, but instead had the tables turned to not only benefit him, but his newest would-be students as well. What made this worse though was the fact that for the first time in nearly twenty years, he could not see a way around it.

Sighing, he looked at Ruby- Neo seemed to be the subordinate in this partnership, which made sense considering Ruby's exceptional skills. Was Neo some sort of protégé or something?

The thought vanished as soon as it came, in the end it did not matter; what did was solidifying this just-turned negotiation.

"...Very well, we will need bank account details to transfer the money-" he stopped talking when Ruby shook her head violently, a frown on her face. Neo understood, having plenty of deals like this where Ruby denied the usual transferring and wanted cash in hand. It was quite understandable, really; if transferred, and a good enough hacker was somewhere nearby, they could lose all of their money, plus the transferred amount. If it was cash, however, Ruby and Neo could just place the money in a safety deposit box or some sort of overseas account, secure and safe where no hacker could ever get to it.

"Sorry, Ruby and I don't do transfers, cash only."

"...Okay." he sighed deeply, sipping his coffee and wondering how he'd even gotten into this mess in the first place, before his thought turned to the mountain of paperwork at his office and he internally cringed.

After Neo and Ruby signed the paperwork to be located to Beacon, they were reluctantly given their weapons back- it took a total of half an hour between them to put all of the weaponry back in their respective places.

And then they were on the first flight to Beacon.

(^^^^^^)

Neo had her chin rested on Ruby's shoulder, the two of them staring out the window of the bullhead they were in, watching for the second time for Ruby as Signal drifted slowly out of existence.

Ruby had a pair of black jeans on with a white plain T-shirt on and a pair of black trainers. Over her shoulders was the red cloak, the hood wrapped around her neck. She could feel Neo slowly wrap her hands around Ruby's waist, and didn't mind a bit; it was moments like this, moments when they were alone, that they could finally be who they were.

She leaned into the gentle wrapping, her back moulding into the slightly taller girl's chest and stomach, a soft sigh escaping through her lips; it always confused her how mutes could make noises- sighs, burps, coughs- but couldn't speak, shout, do anything normal people could. heh, normal people didn't have Neo though, and that's all she cared about right now.

A soft voice almost unsure of its self spoke up, blowing on her neck softly with a breath smelling of mint and some flower she could care less about to figure out the name of. "You sure you want to go to Beacon?"

Ruby just shook her head, patting Neo's hands that were gently placed over her stomach. _'I'll be fine'_ it meant, but Neo could tell this was a can of worms that could turn into a grenade and blow up in her face at any second.

Before she could protest, the airship stopped, Ruby gently unwrapping herself form Neo, grabbing the one suitcase she'd brought with herself and looking at Neo with a critical eye, running over her usual dressing state, before the doors opened and they both walked out, professionalism as cold as ice plastered onto their features.

A blur of gawping, gossiping students and a couple of teachers warily looking at the duo, and a whole five minutes later, Ruby and Neo found themselves stood outside of team RWBY''s dorm, where Ozpin told them to go; Neo had known about Weiss and Ruby's...past- Ruby wrote it down for her to understand why she left Beacon. Needless to say, someone that hurts Ruby is someone on Neo's shit list.

Ruby looked at Neo once, nodding, showing she was ready. Neo raised a hand to the door, knocked twice, and heard a voice she'd already hate shouting "I'm coming, I'm coming!"

Another voice shouted after what she assumed was a very large woman barrelling towards the door. "Yang, be nice! That could be our new leader for all we know."

The door opened, a blonde curtain of hair was the first thing she saw, followed by the eerie sound of a gasp, someone fainting and hitting the floor, and a pin dropping form the silence.

The blonde woman who opened the door looked a mixture between shocked, confused, and extremely relieved; so this must be Yang, the only person Ruby regretted leaving behind. "R-Ruby?"

The girl in question pushed past her roughly, followed by a skipping Neo who was balancing her umbrella over her left shoulder.

"W-Wait, Ruby!?" Yang cried out in utter relief, sprinting towards her sister who simply turned around and moved out of the way of the would-be tackle into the floorboards beneath them. Yang barrelled into the shocked Blake, who in turn flew towards the back wall and landed with Yang on top of her.

"Ow, Blake move your-"

"Careful, just let me-"

"That's not a pillow, Blake..."

"...Shut up."

While Neo was watching with interest and amusement at the black and yellow pair un-tangle themselves, and subsequently fail at every chance, Ruby was unpacking her things, placing her small suitcase filled with weapons of every calibre and size in a corner, making sure the combination lock and fingerprint scanner worked correctly. She had no fear of the suitcase being stolen, considering it had an in-built tracker, layered with fire Dust-laced titanium, padded on the inside to keep the contents safe and, for that final touch, a combination key lock with a fingerprint scanner that only she and Neo could access.

It was all very secure.

While this was all going on, Weiss woke form her shock-induced feinting, only to rub her eyes and see Ruby messing with a suitcase, dressed smarter than she remembers her ever being, but with the same scarf wrapped around her mouth.

She feinted again.


	2. I'm An Innocent Demon

**The ending! Now, it's not the best,but you can't deny that this could be turned into a full story someday...right?**

 ***Cricket and owl sounds sounds*...right?**

(^^^^^^)

" _A silent person can be heard the loudest, if they have the smallest voice and the biggest heart."_

 _-Me-_

(^^^^^^)

Sitting with her legs crossed and her scythe folded up in the crevice that her crossed thighs made, Ruby relaxed her back muscles, slumping as she felt the sleepiness that had plagued her for the past year arrive like a freight train. It slammed into her full force, and before anyone could even see it happen, her eyes were drifting downwards.

This was the first time she'd even got close to sleeping in nearly six days, the constant sips of coffee she had partaken in the only thing keeping her awake through the night to brave the next day. She missed sleeping, but not the nightmares that came with it; the cliché screams of _'Why did you do this?'_ and _'We had families, you took us away from them!'_ didn't bother her at all, it was what, exactly, she had done that made her fear sleep; nightmares were just dreams that took a turn for the worst, and she'd managed to elude that turn by sleeping next to Neo, who knew too well of her plight.

Neo, however, was out training in the hall, leaving the rest of them to look at Ruby, who was in a meditative state and sleeping, with worry. Blake worried the most, being the furthest from Ruby when she was here a year ago. She'd preferred reading over trying to decipher the signs Ruby made with her hands and the occasional grunts she'd make when she wanted to convey something. It made it even worse that she was sleeping with Ruby's now ex-girlfriend.

Yang was tearing herself apart; her sister had changed, that's for sure- while she was never a cheery girl to begin with, her silence and inability to socialise crippling her growth in charisma and positive attitude lead to her being a bit cold. When Weiss began to date her she thought this was a milestone for Ruby...only to realise Weiss only wanted her for the sex, while she was cheating on her with Blake all along. Needless to say she had still never forgiven them, even if she acted like she did; she couldn't look them in the eye anymore knowing they drove Ruby to become what she is now- a stone cold, powerful fighter, assassin, thief, and now Huntress.

She didn't know what to do in this situation, because her sister who had vanished for a year arrived yesterday with an unknown pink and brown haired girl calling herself Ruby's partner; she figured Neo was Ruby's partner from her thieving and assassination days, and she simply decided to follow her boss to Beacon. She was somewhat right in that regard, but the train of thought stopped as the entire team, who were all staring at Ruby's figure, widened their eyes dramatically and in synch when Ruby woke up, not five minutes after sleeping.

Her eyes shot open, she jumped a little bit, and looked around as if in danger, frantically turning her head this way and that, before calming down and sighing. She slithered a hand gently over both her eyes, wiping them of sleep to wake herself up; five minutes: Figures that without Neo she'd be asleep for only five minutes.

She turned her head, spotting the entire team minus Neo staring at her with what could be described as worry. Ruby shook her head at them. _'still too nosy for their own goods...they're really not going to like the job I have tonight then, if I know them.'_ she stopped thinking, turning her head to the door as it opened, and she lifted a hand slowly to Neo, who raised one back, slightly faster. _'We have a job to do, and if they follow me, they better not get in my way, or I'll be telling Ozpin and moving teams first chance I get.'_ She turned her head to eye Weiss and Blake, who were sat together, and shook her head before standing up, walking with a slight sway in her hips when she noticed Neo watching her.

'First thing; get her attention. She had it alright, if the slow blush blooming on Neo's cheeks indicated anything, and Ruby decided to put Neo out of her misery; she stopped just in front of her and pecked her on the cheek. Ruby then made a couple of signs with her hands, Neo watching diligently as her girlfriend and boss signed the words she wanted to speak.

"Yeah, I remember. It's tonight, right?" Ruby nodded, and Neo sighed in relief; she had _not_ remembered at all. Tonight was the job that could make them billions of Lien if done right, and they were always done right.

Ruby signed again.

"Hey! I did not forget!"

Ruby lifted an eyebrow, and Neo's shoulders slumped, defeated by Ruby's nonverbal logic; she knew Ruby was right to be mad, but that kiss, if only chaste, proved they should reveal what they were now, or Ruby would get madder and do the one thing Neo hated when Ruby was mad; withhold sex. Ruby was a damn goddess in bed! Neo needed the sex, and she loved her too much, so she _abhorred_ it when Ruby got mad.

"Okay, I forgot...Sorry."

Ruby's expression grew soft, so she slowly and gently cupped Neo's cheek, bringing her mouth to her own in a prolonged kiss that Yang, in the background, could not help but catcall to. It only lasted five seconds at the most, but it did provide the chance for a small smile to grace Neo's lips, grinning like an idiot when Ruby parted, only to kiss her cheek, grab her scythe, and leave the room.

Neo turned and saw three dropped jaws.

"What...?"

Yang shot upwards, sprinting at Neo with the force of a bullet, slamming into her and pinning her to her massive chest, squealing like a baby and smiling all the way. "Ooohh, Ruby and you are so cuuuuuute!" Neo's arms flailed around and she gasped for the breath that wasn't coming. She'd been suffocated before, by Roman once when he got angry, and again by a White Fang member when she was four. But the usual burning of her lungs didn't come, no, instead it was the feeling as if her entire body was on fire.

"Breath...air...! Need...release me...dying..." Yang dropped her and worriedly looked her over for bruises or injuries. When she saw there were none, she rubbed her hand on the back of her neck sheepishly.

"...Yeah, sorry 'bout that...I tend to get carried away sometimes."

"Sometimes!?" Weiss screeched, her stupor gone and high pitched voice making all in the room wince. "You almost killed me and Blake when we told you about us!"

Yang deadpanned. "...Because I was _trying_ to kill you two, princess."

Blake interjected, her voice sounding unsure and careful; what she'd done to Ruby was horrible an' all, but what she did to Yang was worse. She had listened to Yang give an entire speech on how she loved Blake, and sure Blake felt flattered, but for obvious reasons she declined. Though...maybe it could've gone better than _'sorry, you're not really that interesting to be honest'_.

"I thought you said you forgave us...?"

Yang glared, Neo giggling in the background. "I lied."

What!?" Weiss' voice was annoying Neo now, but Yang just sent Weiss a look that said _'I promise you pain and suffering if you keep it up'_.

"As if I'd forgive you two...no, you're both still firmly on my shit list." She crossed her arms and looked at Neo with a smile. "You keep making her happy you hear?" she leaned into Neo's ear and whispered. "She likes cookies and cream when she needs calming down."

Neo nodded, shouted her thanks as she sped out of the room, and left the three teammates with issues to stare at each other.

"When will you forgive us?" Blake questioned warily, as if the answer would scare her.

"When Ruby tells you she forgives you for what you did."

Weiss' eyes widened in rage her voice echoing past the walls as she screamed at Yang. "She's mute, she can't tell us _anything_!"

Yang grinned smugly, turning around and jumping on her bed. She rested her hands behind her head as she looked at the ceiling.

"I know."

(^^^^^^)

The target was within her crosshairs, but from what she could tell, the man was too old to be the target she was after. The contract specifically said 'thirty year old bank manager'; it did not say eighty year old with cataracts and a relative who worked in Atlas's Military Corps, a walking stick in his hand.

Growling angrily, she scoured the area with her rifle, her scythe at home tucked safely beneath her bed. Midnight missions and assassinations like this required stealth, not stopping power, to ensure success. Her rifle was powerful enough to stop a bull, and with anti-personnel rounds, an ensured kill in any area with a vital organ. To ensure stealth for this mission, she used a silencer, along with a carbon stock for mobility and the longest scope on the market for rifles such as this; known as the 'Hawk-eye' scope, this thing could be zoomed to its full 22x zoom capability to make a target halfway across Vale appear as if they were right in front of her, and it came with infrared heat vision and night-vision toggles to boot.

It cost her at least two months of her fortune from stealing, plus another two from what she got from other assassination and mercenary jobs. Overall, it cost her about seven and a half million Lien. The rifle cost nine million Lien, plus the high tech stealth suit she wore that cost another two hundred million Lien.

The suit was known as 'Shadow-Dancer MK-II', the latest in stealth tech and AI advancement in the world of Remnant; built specifically for snipers and night-time reconnaissance. The suit itself was made of poly-fibre carbon, with thin Kevlar plates held together on the outside of it by ballistic gel, which could stop a high impact armour piercing sniper round. Thin and made for mobility, the legs of the suit were interconnected to the torso by two wires on each leg that travelled upwards, past the thighs to the waist, which connected the torso to the legs. The boots were connected to the legs in a similar manner, as were the gloves of the suit to the arms of the torso. All in all, it was a full body stealth suit designed to stop a minigun's hail of bullets, provide one hundred percent safety from close-range explosives, and unparalleled mobility.

Then there was the AI part; the suit was integrated with a combat awareness module, an AI that was designed to provide tactical feedback; places to hide, vital weak points in enemy armour, velocity of bullets fired, etcetera. It was fully voiced by a female, which made Ruby want to get it even more- feminine AIs were rare finds these days, the male AI gender being superior. The MK-II suit was by no means experimental, but it was costly to the point of the amount of money spent in buying it being able to fund a massive company for the rest of its existence. Which is where Neo came in; Ruby had decided to buy it has a birthday present to herself, since her sixteenth didn't come with presents; her friends were off celebrating some national holiday.

Neo decided the amount of money wasn't fair, so she snuck in, robbed it and the tech they were using to build more of the suits, killed everyone, and walked out with her umbrella swinging and she whistled in nonchalance.

The suit came with a neural interface, something that was painful to have implanted in the back of her skull, but proved to be more useful than it seemed; not only could her AI provide information through her eyes, only so she could view it, it also provided her with soft melodious music- the rock music she used to be in was only a phase, she realised, and now she preferred old music such as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Where the AI learned what she liked she'll never know, but it hardly mattered- in fact, she mentally praised the AI, which would hum in glee or sometimes join in singing along with whatever song was playing.

As _'fly me to the moon'_ was playing in the background, Ruby finally found the target; greyed hair but not too grey to be any older than forty. No limp, perfectly healthy, green eyes and dark skin.

This was her target.

The scope zoomed in so much that she could see the goose-bumps that the cold air oft the night was giving his cheeks. She squeezed the trigger, a bullet flew out silently, and the target dropped dead within a millisecond of the bullet being fired.

"Target neutralised; probability and survival rate of the target...zero percent. Well done Ruby." the AI spoke through her interface, praising her for another job well done; it also came in handy for moral support, considering Ruby treated it as a person and not a piece of machinery in her head. While the interface wasn't part of the suit itself, it did help for it to have something to connect to feed it her vitals and medical information.

Nodding in affirmation, Ruby packed the sniper into her suitcase, taking it apart and placing all the relevant pieces in the areas they were built to fit. Once done, she mentally asked the AI to send a message in the form of two Morse code clicks to the small radio she had in the getaway vehicle. Morse code was the most useful thing to Ruby; it allowed her to communicate via her AI to let Neo know when a mission had been done successfully.

Neo responded a second later with a small sigh through her earpiece. _"Okay then...so why did I have to be here with you?"_

"I believe Vale's Police Department have responded faster than anticipated, hence your need for being here." Ruby's AI spoke what she herself would have said if she could have said anything at all. Not two seconds later sirens and gunfire could be heard through Neo's headset, causing her to wince when Ruby pulled out her baton and hit a policeman who had gotten lucky; she guessed it was her baton, because the sickening crunch of something cracking echoed through her headset, causing her to hold down the bile at the back of her throat. The baton smacked right off of his shin, causing him to crumple to the ground in pain; it was fractured, and as he stared in shock at the girl with the red hood, he silently thanked the heavens that it was Jacky he was called to get and not a different criminal, say, with a passion for crippling cops or killing them.

"Engine's ready and waiting, Ruby." a moment of silence ensued before Ruby sent out two more clicks via her AI.

That basically meant yes, but to Neo's slightly immature mind it meant _'let's get the hell out of here before I get bored and start killing people'_.

It was a frighteningly close description of something Ruby would say...if she could say anything. Hell for all Neo knew Ruby could be shooting up VPD's finest right now!

Tonight was gonna be a loooong night.

(^^^^^^)

( **OMAKE** : _The first time ever that Neo embarrassed Ruby with simple logic.)_

"Say, Ruby?"

Ruby, who was walking with one hand in her black casual slacks pocket and another behind her head, turned shifted her eyes lazily from the centre to the side of her peripheral vision, where Neo was swinging her umbrella occasionally. Beacon was too easy for her, as were the lessons, so she and Neo decided to skip the mandatory and boring Chemistry lessons.

Seeing the slight eye shift took her at least a minute, but Neo could see she had Ruby's...somewhat divided attention. "Why don't you ever use that AI thing to help you in classes? You hate work, I know that...but, I mean, wouldn't it help?" Neo sped up when Ruby casually turned a corner. "It's not technically cheating, because it's a part of you for the rest of your life, right?"

Ruby suddenly stopped, turned her head, and blinked slowly, processing what her partner had just said.

Of course! She could have done that right from the start. Beacon's work was a little too tedious, considering she was far above it anyway in both skill and knowledge, but applying that knowledge to paper was always tricky, so why didn't she think of using her AI? Sheer stupidity of the situation slammed into her, causing her to look at the ground with the first look of even slight shame Neo had seen on Ruby's face.

"You didn't think about it? Seriously!?" she was shocked; doing that would be the first thing she'd use a high-tech AI for! Well, that and calculating how much tubs of ice cream she'd devoured in her lifetime.

Ruby looked at Neo, as if pleading for her not to carry it on.

Neo carried it on.

"I mean, come on! You get one of those and the first thing you do is...well, actually, using it to help you shoot better is kinda cool...but still! You should have done it!"

Ruby face palmed. "I'm right, aren't I?"

Ruby walked away, screaming in her head at the AI, who was apologising profusely, for not coming up with the idea sooner.

Neo grinned stupidly, whistling as she walked away with a triumphant spring in her step.

"Yeah, I'm right."


End file.
